18 November 2008
Kampala — During a recent talk in Fort Portal businessman Patrick Bitature said that western Uganda milk producers earn sh500b annually. He also revealed that the turnover of matooke from the region is easily a billion shillings a day.
Uganda is the largest producer of bananas in the world but does not even export 1% of its bounty. Uganda lags behind Kenya and Tanzania in milk production.
Coffee, cotton, tea, sugarcane, the story is the same across the agricultural spectrum - we are producing only a fraction of what we are capable of and as a result there is more poverty perpetuation than alleviation in the countryside.
But it was not always like this. Around the time of independence Uganda's agricultural sector was way ahead of its neighbours, with a strong cash crop economy, uncontested food security and a promising agri-industry sector.
The upheavals of the 70s and 80s, however, put a stop to this development process, sending agriculture into regression to the point that the sector had been reduced to subsistence farming.
The expulsion of the Asians, the collapse of the cooperative movement and the subsequent lack of agribusiness has meant the sector has failed to take off in the last 25 years.
Because of the inadequacy of institutions to direct farmer efforts, buy their produce and market it, setting up an agro-industry in Uganda is prohibitively costly. This is before we factor in the poor transport networks, the power shortages and unskilled manpower.
The need for large-scale agro-industries is urgent, never mind that government action does not suggest that. By serving as a ready market for farmers these industries will boost production in the rural areas raising family incomes and helping to alleviate poverty.
Government needs to treat the promotion of agro-industry with the seriousness it warrants. By incentivising agri-business the effects can be immediate and dramatic not only in raising rural incomes but also in job creation and export earnings.
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Surely, i agree with Mr Patrick on agribussiness failure in uganda, the collapse of cooperatives was the first mistake and liberalisation sent the last nails to the agribussiness 'coffin' in the sense that it exposed the already vulnerable farmers to the greedy middle men, so urgent need for GOU to focus on farmer empowerment through institutionalization and value addition to agro products. I salute the VP on his progress on Rice, this is wat Ugandans sh'd concentrate on, matooke is only for food security and has no future for export.